This invention relates to a leveling and aligning device for installing tiles.
Generally speaking, leveling and aligning devices for installing tiles are used in the building construction sector and allow tiles, paving blocks and the like to be installed in such a way that they are correctly arranged relative to each other and properly spaced, thus greatly facilitating tile installation.
Document US799235462 discloses a tile leveling and aligning device which comprises a supporting base and a spacing member connected to the supporting base at right angles to the supporting base. More specifically, the spacing member is connected to the supporting base along a preferential fracturing line.
The spacing member divides the supporting base into two separate portions, each of which has a respective tile placed on it.
More specifically, the tiles are placed on top of the supporting base with their respective edges in abutment along the spacing member in such a way that they are laid at a reciprocal distance which is equal to the thickness of the spacing member.
It should be noted that precise laying requires at least two leveling devices for each side of each tile.
Once the tiles have been laid using the leveling devices, they can be leveled in height using a wedge which can be inserted by sliding into a through slot formed in the spacing member.
Once the tiles have been laid, the spacing member of each device is removed from the respective supporting base along the preferential fracturing line by knocking the wedge out of the spacing member, while the supporting base remains embedded under the tiles.
Although the leveling device described is easy to make and use, it has several disadvantages.
A first disadvantage is that the device is not versatile because it cannot be used to place the tiles at a reciprocal distance greater than the thickness of the spacing member.
Moreover, the device described cannot be used to align three or four tiles relative to each other to make a T- or X-shaped joint.
Document WO2011121476A1 discloses another leveling device which at east partly overcomes the above mentioned disadvantages.
Like the other device already described, this device comprises a supporting base and an abutment member connected thereto along a preferential fracturing line.
The abutment member has a passage extending from the supporting base and into which a tile leveling wedge can be inserted.
The device also comprises a spacer body having a slit in which the abutment member can be inserted in such a way that the spacer body itself defines a passage for the leveling wedge, so as to be interposed between the supporting base and the leveling wedge.
In order to make what is known as the “grout joints” or spaces between the tiles, the spacer body comprises two spacer elements aligned with the slit in the spacer body.
The spacer body also comprises a further spacer portion which is elongate in shape and positioned alongside the slit and at right angles thereto.
In this device, the spacer body is adapted to make the joints or spaces for the grout between one tile and another and, in particular, the two spacer elements and the elongate spacer portion make the cross-shaped joints where four tiles meet.
Furthermore, since the elongate spacer portion is positioned on a single face of the spacer body, spaces between two adjacent tiles can be made by turning the spacer body upside down.
The spacer body partly solves the drawbacks of the device described previously but at the expense of ease of use, since the spacer body is itself an added part to be used together with the abutment member to make not only joints between two adjacent tiles but also cross-shaped joints where the corners of four tiles meet.
The spacer body also involves a further loss of time when the device has to be assembled because the user must be very careful to turn the spacer body the right way round with the correct face towards the tiles, depending on the type of grout joint to be made.